US and French Passengers Test Positive After Deadly Hantavirus Cruise Ship Outbreak

Health authorities in the United States and France have confirmed new hantavirus cases linked to the outbreak aboard the expedition cruise ship MV Hondius, as more than 90 passengers continue to be repatriated from Spain’s Canary Islands.

US health officials said an American passenger who returned from the vessel tested positive for hantavirus, while another US national on the same repatriation flight showed mild symptoms.

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, both passengers travelled back to the United States in “biocontainment units out of an abundance of caution.”

All 17 American citizens aboard the repatriation flight are expected to undergo medical assessments at a healthcare facility in Nebraska. Authorities also said seven additional US passengers who had returned earlier are being monitored in their home states.

A British national living in the US was also evacuated alongside the American passengers.

Meanwhile, French Health Minister Stephane Rist confirmed that a French woman who tested positive is isolating in Paris, warning that her condition was worsening.

French authorities said 22 contact cases linked to the woman had already been identified and traced.

The outbreak aboard the MV Hondius has already claimed the lives of three passengers — a Dutch couple and a German woman. Officials confirmed that at least two of the deaths were directly linked to the virus.

The World Health Organization believes some passengers may have contracted the Andes strain of hantavirus while travelling through remote areas of South America before infections spread among individuals onboard.

Hantaviruses are typically transmitted through contact with infected rodents, including exposure to rodent urine, droppings or saliva. However, the Andes strain is one of the few known forms capable of limited human-to-human transmission.

Symptoms can include fever, severe fatigue, muscle pain, stomach problems, vomiting, diarrhoea and breathing difficulties.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the US decision not to fully adopt the organisation’s recommendations for managing returning passengers “may have risks.”

The WHO has advised a 42-day isolation period for those leaving the ship.

However, acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Jay Bhattacharya said authorities did not want to create unnecessary public alarm, stressing that person-to-person spread remains rare.

“It should not be treated like the Covid virus,” Bhattacharya said.

Images from the Canary Islands showed cruise passengers wearing protective blue gowns, face masks and medical caps while disembarking at the port of Granadilla de Abona on Sunday.